Twitter bot, the network bot that posts your Twitter updates in your channel, works with the new Twitter API now, thanks to some code wrangling by the admin, the tech, and the teacher, Allan Jude (also network staff). Hooray!

The bad news is that in the process of updating things recently, we discovered some corrupt information in the database the bot uses to determine which channels to join. Unfortunately some records were lost. If the Twitter bot hasn’t joined your channel again, you will need to register again. We apologize for the inconvenience.

If you weren’t using the Twitter bot, register now to have your status updates shared in your channel. It’s a simple process. Let us know in #help if you have any questions.

GeekShed provides a twitter bot, aptly named “Twitter”, to provide you with a twitter feed in your channel. It’s very easy to use and doesn’t require that you give over your twitter login. Remember, GeekShed will never ask you for your Twitter login! To use it, follow these simple steps:

All of the commands below need to be done in a PM (private message) with the bot (Twitter).

Register with the bot

Send a PM to the IRC user “Twitter” with the !register command. The syntax of this is: !register <username> <password>. Username and password are the credentials you will use to log into the bot in future. An example of this is:

!register fred asecretpassword

Allow the bot to read your twitter feed

When you register, you will be presented with a URL that you must go to and log into your twitter account. Click the “Allow” button and you will be given a PIN code. Now return back to the bot and use the !pin command to tell the bot what your PIN number is. The syntax of this is: !pin <usernam> <password> <pin>. An example of this is:

!pin fred asecretpassword 5984934

If this is successful, the bot will tell you so.

Add your channel(s)

You can add up to 10 channels to the bot. You must be an op in a channel in order to add the bot to it. To make the bot announce your tweets in a channel, you need to use the !addchan command. This will make the bot join that channel if it’s not already in there. The syntax of this command is: !addchan <username> <password> <channel>. An example of this is:

!addchan fred asecretpassword #fred

You can do this command again to add your twitter feed to more channels.

Tweet and wait

Due to the limitations of Twitter’s API, the bot looks for new tweets every 60 seconds. Within 60 seconds of you tweeting, your tweet will show up in all of the channels you have added.

Other commands

You can delete your account and remove the bot from a channel using other commands in the bot. PM the bot “!help” to see these commands.

Those of you with better memory may remember this. Development of this was started before those of us who run GeekShed left WyldRyde. For obvious reasons, development was postponed and has, fairly recently, resumed.

For those of you who don’t remember, here is an overview…

GeekShed is releasing a network wide bot system named ShedServ. This is a modular system, written in Java. It links directly to the GeekShed network and provides services to channel owners. Because the system is so extensible, there is little that it cannot do and we are more than happy to take suggestions for features which you, the channel owners, would like.

At present, the core of the system is written. We also have 2 modules – one for enabling your channel in the system and the other for creating and assigning bots to your channel. The first feature creating module that shall be written is a responder module. This will allow channel owners to add triggers to the bot which will trigger a response, when used in the channel. For example, you will be able to add a !site trigger which says “Our website is http://www.somesite.com/ – Visit us today!”.

Other features for the future are RSS feed parsing, ability to register nicknames from the GeekShed website and many others that I cannot remember right now.

ETA of this system is currently unknown but we hope to have it complete within the next 2 weeks. Once it is released, we are looking for testers. The requirements to become a tester are…

First a foremost, you MUST understand that this is an experimental system and that you are TESTING it. You must also accept that you may find bugs and exploits in it and that it really isn’t clever to cause havoc, using these. These bugs and exploits should be reported to #help to get them fixed for the stable release.

Your channel must have a user average of 5+ users.

You must also tweet or blog about GeekShed, your favourite channels and this blog post.

You must finally comment on this post to say that you would like to try the system, stating your nickname, your channel and the link to your tweet or blog post.

Assigning a botserv bot to your channel is very easy to do. All that’s required is to do the following.

Pick a name from the list of available bots below.

/bs assign #yourChannel botNick(where botNick is the nick of the desired available bot)

At this point, the bot should have joined your channel, and be assigned channel mode +a (its nick will have an & prefixed to it in the nicklist).

Please keep the following in mind:

All of the bots perform the same functions; the only difference is their identifiable information – nick, ident, host, and real name.

If you feel you have a creative nick, ident, host, and real name for a new bot, please read Can I Make my own BotServ Bot? for information regarding that.

Available Bots

To get a list of available bots, use the command: /msg BotServ BOTLIST

Help! It didn’t work…

If you try to assign a bot and nothing happens, please check your status/server window for any error messages, as these often contain explanations as to why something didn’t work. For example, if you see “[04:10:51] -BotServ- Bot Socretes does not exist.”, you should check the spelling (the real bot is Socrates).

If you do no see an error message, or require further help, stop by #help and network staff will be happy to help you.

Yes, you can! There are 2 classifications of botserv bots, Public and Private. These are detailed below.

Public Bots

Anyone may request a public bot absolutely free. These bots are available for all users to assign to their channels. However, they must be completely generic and not channel specific – for example a Spooks themed bot called HarryPearce is acceptable, whereas a bot named ChillsBot for #chills would not be acceptable.

You may request a bot be added in #help on GeekShed. When you ask, you must state a nickname, ident, hostname and Gecos – e.g. “HarryPearce harry@runs.MI5 Harry Pearce from Spooks”. Bots must be creative and worth adding. If a staff member deems your suggestion is a good one, your bot will be added and an unused bot will be deleted.

This whole process should help us provide a better range of bots to our users.

Private Bots

Anyone who has made a donation of $50 or more may request a private bot. Private bots can have any credentials that you like and will not be available to all users. When you request a private bot, you must state a nickname, ident, hostname, Gecos and channels to which the bot should be assigned. After initial creation, you may request a single change to your BotServ bot every 30 days. A single change is counted as a change to any of the bot’s credentials or the set of channels in which it resides.

If you would like a public or private bot, come and see us in #help on irc.geekshed.net.